Thursday, May 21, 2009

Haircut

I'm glad I have boys (sorry to all those parenting little girls, and maybe I'll be blessed with one one day, but for now...) I'm glad I have boys for haircutting and not little girls. If I had a little girl, I know she would end up with that crooked, too short bang that I always had when I was a kid, scissor cuts are not my thing.My thing for haircutting is the clippers. A lovely friend of ours helped me give our first son his first haircut when he was about one and a half. She has 2 boys herself and was no stranger to the wonders of a good pair of clippers. To demonstrate her youngest (a few months older than my son) ran willingly to the chair chanting 'a haircut, a haircut'. He really didn't need one, but sat for a quick trim. She then set up for my son's turn. We were armed with fruit snacks to help him sit still and let him play with the (guarded clippers) so he could get used to the buzzingness of it. Once he was relaxed we took turns to go for it, shaving his fine baby hair into a neater look. And it was pretty easy. (and yes, the shock of how much older he looked took me back a little, but it was nicer to take care of). Since then, I've invested in my own set of clippers and have been doing in myself for my boys. It's a great money saver. The clippers were a one time cost of less than $50. As long as you keep them clean (very important to clean out all the hair bits caught inside and oil the clippers after each use), they should be good for a long time. The set up for a haircut is crucial. I usually have a show on the TV and set up the chair in TV viewing distance (it helps that we have hardwood floors). I also have a snack readily available (though now that they like having their haircut, it comes after the cut). I also time their haircuts right before bath time, so the hair gets cut and into the tub they go to get rid of the itchies. To set up for the haircut you either need to be near an outlet to plug the clippers in, or, charge them ahead of time. (I'm never that organised, so I always am connected to the wall). You need to have a big towel ready to wrap your young one in and something to secure it with (I use a hairclip of mine). Your hairclippers should have a booklet of how-to instructions. I've been giving my boys the same haircut for a few years now. (When a friend asked me to do her son's hair, I agreeed as long as she realised I only know how to do one kind of haircut). I use a #3 setting for the neck to the crown and around the ears. I then switch the setting to a #5 or 6 to cut the rest of the hair. I make sure to go over the whole head a couple of times just to make sure I don't miss a spot. I also make sure to watch the direction that the hair is growing and cut opposite to that (around the crown is multi-directional). Usually I can get a haircut done in 10 minutes.I tried to get fancier last night and just get away with clipping the bottom and braving using the scissors on top. I had a heck of a time finding directions how to do that, but it didn't matter anyway. My oldest got so wiggly that I stopped after 3 cuts. I knew I'd never be able to do it properly and ended up clipping it all. I'll leave the cutting part to the experts. As long as they are happy getting clipped I'll keep clipping their hair.

1 comment:

I do cut my boys' hair with scissors. Next time I give them a trim I'll take some photos and do a little tutorial. You don't need to cut directionally, though. Just pull the hair straight up and snip, or comb it in the opposite direction to where it usually lies, and snip.